Helmet having a bifurcated crossbraced face guard



J. R. ADAMS Sept. 9 1958 HELMET HAVING A BIFURCATED CROSS-BRACED FACE GUARD Filed May 1, 1957 IN VENTOR, Joe R.-Adams ATTORNEY 2,850,740 Patented Sept. 9, 1958 Unifi S affs Patent mic? 2,850,740 I V HELMET HAVING A BIFURCATED CROSS- BRACED FACE GUARD e Joe R. Adams, Cookeville Tenn.

Application May 1, 1957, Serial No. 656,312

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-9) This invention relates to a helmet having a bifurcated cross-braced face guard.

More particularly the invention relates to a helmet having a die-molded nylon face guard fastened at its ends to the sides of the helmet shell by pairs of telescopic screw fasteners, the head of one of each pair being enlarged to constitute the stud of a snap connector for the usual chin strap for the helmet, the guard having upper and lower bars normally located forwardly of and roughly parallel to the opposing edges of the upper and lower jaw bones of the wearer, and having a vertical medial bracing bar for interreinforcement therebetween.

This application involves an improvement over the disclosure of applicants prior Patent No. 2,611,897 for Helmet With Face Guarding Means, issued September 30, 1952.

Helmets of the type shown in said prior patent and also here involved, are conventionally provided with snap fastener elements located in openings in the side portions of the helmet which cover the ear region of the wearer and it is an object of the present invention to utilize these conventional snap fastener receiving openings for accommodating anchoring means for the face guard and at the same time maintaining the original chin strap snap fastener function, without the necessity of providing an additional opening in the face guard to accommodate these snap fasteners.

A further object of the invention is'to minimize the number of openings required in both the face guard and the helmet, for mounting the face guard and to so arrange the openings which are required, as to maintain a maximum of strength in the face guard structure.

It is another object of this invention to provide a face guard for helmets that provides more effective protective coverage of the face while interfering less with vision and verbal communication.

It is another object to provide a face guard having a pair of vertically spaced mouth-surrounding bars greatly strengthened by a vertical interreinforcing bar.

It is a further object to provide a face guard of molded nylon for great durability and freedom from injury from shattered guard pieces. I

It is yet another object to provide a flexible face guard that facilitates donning and removing the helmet (by t 2 ing side portions 11a in which are formed sound-admitting openings 11b centered over the ear region of the wearer. Shell 11 is lined with conventional padding generally designated 13 stitched and/or otherwise fastened thereto.

The guard 15 is preferably formed of a single diemolded piece of nylon or equivalent stiff, strong and resilient material, and has the general U-shape shown in Fig. 2. The anchoring ends 15a are fiat rectangular portions the faces of which are tilted slightly outwardly toward their upper edges to conform to the downward convergency of the shell side portions 11a.

The guard proper comprises the upper and lower cylindrical spaced bars 15b and integrally connected to the portions 15a by the narrower but thicker portions 15d. Bars 15b and 15c are roughly parallel to the opposed edges of the upper and the lower jaw bones, respectively, of the wearer, and are spaced forwardly from his face about two inches more or less. The upper bar is approximately on the level of the tip of the wearers nose when the head is held erect (Fig. 1).

The bars 15b and 15c are connected by one (or more if desired) vertical bracing bar 152 located so as to provide protection for the wearers front teeth. Bar 15e interbraces and interreinforces the bars 11b and 11c and prevents their separation (which otherwise could permit an injuring object to penetrate between the separated bars). This construction permits decreasing the size of bars 15b and 15c (as compared with bars not so interconnected or braced) thus minimizing interference with vision and talking. The guard thus by increased vertical coverage protects the entire face.

Each anchoring portion 15a is provided with a plurality of spaced apertures 15 to receive the threaded telescopic fasteners 17 which pass thru alined holes in shell 11 to fix the guard 15 thereto. It is to be noted that the forwardmost opening 15 is aligned with the conventional chin strap snap fastener opening provided in the shell 11. Each fastener 17 comprises a headed screw 17a and a headed internally threaded sleeve 17b of generally conventional construction.

One screw head on each side, namely, the head which is carried by the fastener occupying said forwardmost aperture 15 is enlarged or is provided with a rimmed cup which constitutes the stud of the snap-connector by which the buckle 19 detachably fastens the chin strap 21 to the helmet 11. As will be seen from Figure 2, the two apertures 15f are longitudinally aligned and lie substantially on the longitudinal center line of the arms 15a. Thus, a minimum number of apertures is required in the mounting arms due to the dual function of the forwardmost apertures 15 and the location of both sets of apertures is such as to avoid weakening the structure of the mounting arms.

While I have disclosed a certain preferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that many changes can be made in the size, shape, composition and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit of theinvention as defined by the subjoined claim. For example, the helmet shell and the guard could, if desired, be molded as a unitary structure.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

In combination with a conventional molded helmet of the type comprising a shell having depending side portions for covering the ear region of the wearer, the respective side portions each having an aligned opening spaced vertically from their lower edges to accommodate chin strap snap fastener devices; a U-shaped face guard having mounting arms and extending from the side portions of said shell forwardly of and around the jaw portion of the head of the wearer, each of said mounting arms being provided with a pair of spaced anchor receiving apertures lying substantially on the longitudinally center line of said 3 arms, one of each pair of anchor receiving apertures being axially aligned with one of said snap fastener openings in the respective side portions, a combined snap fastener and anchoring element having a snap fastener element at the outer end of its shank; and an anchoring element; at the other end ofthe shank, the shank: of the fastener ex.- tending through and snuglyengaging its respective. set of aligned openings and apertures, the said fastener fixing the relative positions of the face guard and helmet and serving jointly as a first anchoring means for said arms References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,611,897 Adams Sept. 30, 1952 2,785,405 Snyder Mar. 19, 1957 2,785,406 Rappyleyea et al Mar. 19, 1957 

